‘Modern Family’ Remains One of Viewer’s Favorite Shows

With two more episodes to go in its sixth season, ABC’s top-rated sitcom, Modern Family, still remains one of viewers’ favorite shows. Over the last six seasons, the show has enjoyed so much success that it came as no surprise to followers of the show when ABC renewed the show for a seventh season.

The show has certainly been having some ups and downs in its ratings. However, even when there is a drop like there was last Wednesday, May 13 2015, the show still manages to stay in the top bracket of most-viewed shows. This last Wednesday, Modern Family had a total viewership of about 8.10 million, coming in behind the 9.43 million viewers recorded by CBS’ Survivor, but above the 7.74 million viewers recorded by Fox’s American Idol. This result places ABC’s top sitcom in the second position of the most-viewed shows among those aired on Wednesday.

From the moment the show first aired, in 2009 (September 23), the show has recorded one success story after another. The premiere recorded a viewership of about 12.6 million first viewers. Very impressive indeed for a show’s premiere. After being signed to run for a complete season in the same 2009 (October 8), the show has received a lot of awards. Among the awards Modern Family has earned are:

Emmy Awards

Outstanding Comedy Series (five years in a row)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (it won this award four times) – Eric Stonestreet and Ty Burrell both won it twice.

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series twice. Both times, they were for Julie Bowen

Golden Globe Awards

2012 Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy

Aside from awards, the show has also been getting great reviews from critics. To quote what Variety‘s Brian Lowry had to say about Modern Family:

Flitting among three story lines, it’s smart, nimble and best of all, funny, while actually making a point about the evolving nature of what constitutes ‘family’.

This success has also been reflected in the earnings of the show. In 2012, it was rated tenth among the highest-earning TV shows, earning an estimated $2.13 million per episode.

In show business, numbers are critical. The fact that ABC renewed the contract for Modern Family to air for another season shows that the numbers have been encouraging for the company. In the fifth season, the show had an average of 9.91 million viewers per show. Though this dropped slightly to 9.50 million viewers per show in the sixth season, the numbers still show that Modern Family has still remained one of viewer’s favorite shows. With two episodes to go in this sixth season, more viewers will be expected to follow the concluding parts of this season.

With the current season close to its finale, expectations will really be high as fans look forward to the confirmed upcoming seventh season. The stakes are high and the Modern Family has set a high standard that it must maintain in the new season. Having managed to maintain a strong run through seasons one to six, fans cannot but expect a continuation of the same. The producers of the show are, however, expected to exceed the expectations of the viewers by raising the bar. This is necessary to ensure that rather than decrease, the shows viewership should increase.

Reading of the successes that have been recorded by Modern Family, many fans may not know that the three major networks had the opportunity of having the show on their network. NBC and FOX refused to take on the show when Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan (creators of Modern Family) first pitched it to them. ABC, however, gave the show a chance and today it is their top sitcom. Modern Family has clearly remained one of viewers’ favorite shows. These viewers are excited that as one season is coming to an end, they can rest assured that a new and fresh season will be commencing after it.

By Chimerenka Odimba

Sources:

TV Series Finale: Modern Family: Season Six Ratings
TV Series Finale: Wednesday TV Ratings: Arrow, American Idol, Nashville, Chicago PD, CSI: Cyber
Whenwill.net: Modern Family season 7 release date